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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

Research on POWER-FREQUENCY FIELDS

Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992

Committee to Review the Research Activities Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992

Board on Radiation Effects Research

Commission on Life Sciences

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS,
2101 CONSTITUTION AVENUE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20418

The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report was prepared under Cooperative Agreement DE-FC01-94CE34101 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy.

International Standard Book Number: 0-309-06543-7

A limited number of copies of this report are available from

National Research Council

Board on Radiation Effects Research

Room 342

2101 Constitution Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20418

(202) 334-2232

Copyright 1999 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES COMPLETED UNDER THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 1992

JOHN F. AHEARNE (Chairman), Director,

Sigma Xi Center, Research Triangle Park, NC and Duke University, Durham, NC

EDWIN L. CARSTENSEN, Arthur Gould Yates Professor of Engineering, Emeritus,

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

RAYMOND L. ERIKSON,

Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

JAMES F. HOBURG,

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

MAURICE S. FOX,

Lester Wolfe Professor of Molecular Biology. Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

WALTER R. ROGERS,

University of Texas School of Public Health and School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

JAN A. J. STOLWIJK,

Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

THOMAS S. TENFORDE, Chief Scientist,

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

EVAN B. DOUPLE, Director,

Board on Radiation Effects Research

RICK JOSTES, Study Director

ISAF AL-NABULSI, Visiting Scientist

PEGGY JOHNSON, Project Assistant (until August 18, 1998)

ERIC TRUETT, Project Assistant

DORIS E. TAYLOR, Administrative Staff Assistant

NORMAN GROSSBLATT, Editor

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

BOARD ON RADIATION EFFECTS RESEARCH

R. J. MICHAEL FRY (Chairman),

Oak Ridge, TN*

S. JAMES ADELSTEIN,

Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

VALERIE BERAL,

University of Oxford, United Kingdom

EDWARD R. EPP,

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

HELEN H. EVANS,

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH?

MAURICE S. FOX,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

LYNN W. JELINSKI,

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

WILLIAM F. MORGAN,

University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

WILLIAM J. SCHULL,

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX

DANIEL O. STRAM,

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

H. RODNEY WITHERS,

UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

EVAN B. DOUPLE, Director,

RICK JOSTES, Senior Program Officer

STEVE SIMON, Senior Program Officer

ISAF AL-NABULSI, Visiting Scientist

CATHERINE S. BERKLEY, Administrative Associate

KAREN BRYANT, Project Assistant (until October 23, 1998)

PEGGY JOHNSON, Project Assistant (until August 18, 1998)

ERIC TRUETT, Project Assistant

BRIDGET EDMONDS, Project Assistant

DORIS E. TAYLOR, Administrative Staff Assistant

*  

New BRER chairman effective July 1998

†  

New BRER members effective July 1998

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

COMMISSION ON LIFE SCIENCES

MICHAEL T. CLEGG (Chair),

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Riverside, CA

FREDERICK R. ANDERSON,

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Washington, DC

JOHN C. BAILAR III,

McGill University, Montreal, CA

PAUL BERG,

Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA

JOANNA BURGER,

Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

SHARON L. DUNWOODY,

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

DAVID S. EISENBERG,

University of California, Los Angeles, CA

JOHN L. EMMERSON,

Indianapolis, IN

NEAL L. FIRST,

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

DAVID J. GALAS,

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

ARTURO GOMEZ-POMPA,

University of California, Riverside, CA

COREY S. GOODMAN,

University of California, Berkeley, CA

HENRY W. HEIKKINEN,

University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO

BARBARA S. HULKA,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

HANS J. KENDE,

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

CYNTHIA J. KENYON,

University of California, San Francisco, CA

MARGARET G. KIDWELL,

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

BRUCE R. LEVIN,

Emory University, Atlanta, GA

OLGA F. LINARES,

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Miami, FL

DAVID M. LIVINGSTON,

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

DONALD R. MATTSION,

March of Dimes, White Plains, NY

ELLIOT M. MEYEROWITZ,

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

ROBERT T. PAINE,

University of Washington, Seattle, WA

ROBERT R. SEDEROFF,

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

ROBERT R. SOKAL,

State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY

CHARLES F. STEVENS,

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA

SHIRLEY M. TILGHMAN,

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

JOHN L. VANDEBERG,

Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, TX

RAYMOND L. WHITE,

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

PAUL GILMAN, Executive Director (until September 30, 1998).

MYRON UMAN, Acting Executive Director

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an advisor to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

PREFACE

Since the 1970s, concerns about health hazards associated with electric and magnetic fields from power lines and from workplace, school, and household use of electricity have led to many studies and continued controversy about whether adverse health effects occur. In the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–486), Congress authorized a focused national research program to study the possible health effects of exposure to low-intensity, 60-hertz electric and magnetic fields. In response to this legislation and at the request of the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Research Council established a committee under the Board on Radiation Effects Research (BRER) in the Commission on Life Sciences (CLS) to aid in its review of the power-frequency magnetic field research activities completed under the Electric and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination (EMF-RAPID) program that was authorized by the Energy Policy Act. The Research Council's Committee to Review the Research Activities Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) was asked to review the EMF-RAPID program implemented by DOE and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and research strategies suggested by other federal and nonfederal groups.

The Research Council committee consists of persons experienced in bioelectromagnetics, biophysics, electrical engineering, epidemiology, in vivo animal research, toxicology, neurobehavioral and neuroendocrine science, molecular biology and genetics, mechanisms of cancer induction, and risk assessment. One member of the committee was also a member of the Research Council committee on the Possible Effects of Electromagnetic Fields on Biologic Systems, which was charged with the review of the research literature related to possible adverse health effects of power-frequency magnetic fields. The current committee also includes a former president and a former member of the board of directors of the Bioelectromagnetics Society.

The committee's study was conducted under the general guidance of BRER and CLS. The Committee has had access to documents provided by DOE and NIEHS that describe the EMF-RAPID program, 11 completed engineering reports, draft project summaries of 61 EMF-RAPID-funded projects, three reports on EMF-RAPID science review symposia, the NIEHS working-group report, and two booklets published as part of the EMF-RAPID information dissemination program.

This is the second and final report of the Research Council committee's review. The first (interim) report was produced by a committee, three of whose members are members of this committee. The committee's work was aided substantially by the cooperation of Imre Gyuk of DOE and Gary Boorman, Naomi Bernheim, Michael Galvin, Christopher Portier, and Mary Wolfe of NIEHS. Its report could not have been completed without the untiring effort of Rick Jostes, who, in addition to being responsible for keeping the committee on track and dealing with the federal agencies, contributed his own insights as a researcher in this field. He was well assisted by Peggy Johnson, Eric Truett, and Isaf Al-Nabulsi of the BRER staff.

John F. Ahearne

Chair, Committee to Review the Research Activities Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

REVIEWER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise in accordance with procedures for reviewing NRC and IOM reports approved by the NRC's Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the NRC in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The content of the final report is the responsibility of the NRC and the study committee, and not the responsibility of the reviewers. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals, who are neither officials nor employees of the NRC, for their participation in the review of this report:

Robert K. Adair, Yale University

Leeka Kheifets, Electric Power Research Institute

J. Ross MacDonald, Chapel Hill, NC

John E. Moulder, Medical College of Wisconsin

Richard Saunders, National Radiological Protection Board, UK

Herman P. Schwan, The University of Pennsylvania

Charles F. Stevens, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

While the individuals listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, it must be emphasized that responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authorizing committee and the NRC.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
×

CONTENTS

 

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

1

   

Charge to the committee

 

1

   

Conclusions

 

2

   

Program limitations

 

2

   

EMF-RAPID engineering research program

 

3

   

EMF-RAPID scientific research program (biology)

 

4

   

EMF-RAPID communication program

 

7

   

Recommendations

 

8

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

10

   

Congressional hearings

 

10

   

The Energy Policy Act of 1992

 

11

   

Electric and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination Program

 

11

   

Background

 

12

 

 

EMF-RAPID PROGRAM RESEARCH STRATEGY

 

14

 

 

EMF-RAPID FUNDING

 

16

   

Biologic Research

 

18

   

Engineering Projects

 

18

   

Program Management and Risk Assessment

 

18

 

 

SUMMARY OF EPACT COMMITTEE INTERIM REPORT

 

19

   

Status of Research Related to Biologic Effects of Power-frequency Magnetic Field Exposure

 

19

   

In vitro studies

 

19

   

In vivo studies

 

19

   

Review of Research Strategy Adopted by EMF-RAPID Program

 

20

   

Description of Work Initiated Under EMF-RAPID Program

 

20

   

Review of Completed Project

 

21

   

Conclusions of the Interim Report

 

21

   

Recommendations of the Interim Report

 

21

   

Risk assessment

 

21

   

Focused research

 

22

   

Research management

 

22

   

Field mitigation

 

22

   

Program extension

 

22

   

Program completion

 

22

   

Information dissemination

 

23

 

 

EPACT COMMITTEE REVIEW OF COMPLETED PROJECTS

 

24

   

DOE Engineering Projects

 

24

   

Summary

 

33

   

NIEHS Biology Projects

 

35

   

Biology tables

 

38

   

Biology summary

 

70

   

Discussion

 

70

   

Information-Dissemination Projects

 

70

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1999. Research on Power-Frequency Fields Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9587.
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Since the 1970s, concerns about health hazards associated with electric and magnetic fields from power lines and from workplace, school, and household use of electricity have led to many studies and continued controversy about whether adverse health effects occur. In the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-486), Congress authorized a focused national research program to study the possible health effects of exposure to low-intensity, 60-hertz electric and magnetic fields. In response to this legislation and at the request of the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Research Council established a committee under the Board on Radiation Effects Research (BRER) in the Commission on Life Sciences (CLS) to aid in its review of the power-frequency magnetic field research activities completed under the Electric and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination (EMF-RAPID) program that was authorized by the Energy Policy Act. The Research Council's Committee to Review the Research Activities Completed Under the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT) was asked to review the EMF-RAPID program implemented by DOE and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and research strategies suggested by other federal and nonfederal groups.

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